Improved washing-machine



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HAMILro-N E. SMITH, or NEW YORK, N. Y. Letters Patent No. 88,816, dated April 13,1869.

MPROVED WASHING-MACHINE.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the Ilma.

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To all whom 'it may com-em.-

Be it known that LHAMILTON E. SMITH, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and improved Washing- Machine; and I hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description therecf, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal section of my improved washing-machine, taken through the line x 2:, iig. 2.

Figure 2 represents a vertical transverse section of the same, through the line y y, fig. 1.

Similar letters indicate the same parts.

This invention relates to a machine for washin g clothes, and consists ina wooden box, hung, -or suspended by metal lugs, or pins upon coil springs, in such a manner that the box oscillates, or plays freely from sideto side, having its cent-re of motion at orbelow the line of its bottom.

When the motion of the box is reversed, the springs contract and expand alternately, allowing a complete oscillation, or tilting up of the box on opposite sides, perpendicularly, causing the water and clothes to be allsuddenly thrown from one end to the other of the box, and producing a violent action of the water, which cleanses the clothes rapidly and thoroughly.

A is the box, supported by a frame B, between standards C O, on steelt-oil springs a a., the external ends of .which are made fast to the frame at b b.

On opposite sides of the box A, at or below its bottom side, are fastened metal lugs, or pins c c, which are made fast to the internal ends of the coil springs a a, to hang, or suspend the box with its under side in a horizontal position, and so that when the box oscillates to an extreme limit of motion the bottom of the box shall be nearly or quite perpendicular.

By this mode of hanging the box with its centre of motion at or below the under side of it, the action of the machine is very diierent from what it would beif the centre of motion were above, for in that case there would be more or less stagnation of the contents of the box upon its bottom, at and during every oscillation, instead of a quick and complete overthrow ofthe whole mass, attended, also, by a diminished power of elective operation of the machine.

The springs a a. should be made of good steel, with strength enough to bear the weight of the box and its contents, 'and having a number of coils, or convolutions, iu order to allow of free play, without an excessive strain upon them, under an extreme oscillating motion ofthe box. 4

The box is provided with one or more handles d, to work it by, a lid, e, and a faucet, f.

0n its inside-is secured a series of cross-bars, s s, so arranged that at the bottom of the box they lie close to it, and at the ends they leave a space behind them, as shown clearly in iig. 2.

The cross-bars are placed near enough together to prevent any of the clothes from passing between them.

Under this arrangement of the cross-bars, the water runs into the space behind them, at the lower end of the box, when it is tilted, and then, when its position is reversed, this body of water behihd the bars is thrown forcibly upon the clothes, rushing 4through them to the opposite end of the box.

rlhis contrivance for accumulating and giving an impetus to the water renders the machine much more effective. Reference is made to Letters Patent, bearing date the 28th day of August, 1860, and I disclaim, broadly, a box suspended below the centre of gravity, and made to oscillate by means of the vibrating motion of springs, except coil springs; but,

Having described my improvements,

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat'- i In a washing-machine, the coil springs a a, in combination with the box A suspended thereon, arranged and operating substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

HAMILTON E. SMITH. Witnesses:

O MACDANIEL, G. M. REYNOLDS. 

